Racial Groups of College Students and Leadership Behaviors

The data for this study included 162 White and Black adult college students living in the United States who completed the student - leadership practices inventory, which quantifies leadership behaviors within five subscales. The study aimed to determine if there were statistically significant differences between racial group and leadership behaviors within two subscales of leadership behaviors: Challenge the Process and Enable Others to Act. Collecting this data required creating a digital version of the student-leadership practices inventory, which consists of 30 Likert-scale questions ranging from 1 (rarely or seldom) to 5 (very frequently).

Interpreting the data requires computing mean scores for each subscale of leadership. The mean score of Question 1 and every fifth question thereafter calculates Model the Way behaviors. The mean score of Question 2 and every fifth question thereafter calculates Inspire a Shared Vision behaviors. The mean score of Question 3 and every fifth question thereafter calculates Challenge the Process behaviors. The mean score of Question 4 and every fifth question thereafter calculates Enable Others to Act behaviors. The mean score of Question 5 and every fifth question thereafter calculates Encourage the Heart behaviors. Participants completed the study using a Google Form inspired by the paper student-leadership practices inventory and approved by S-LPI publishers.

Mean scores closer to 5.00 indicate a very high frequency of practicing such behaviors whereas mean scores closer to 1.00 indicate a very low frequency of practicing such behaviors. An independent samples t-test for each research question can determine whether statistical significance exists between racial groups. A Pearson's correlation can determine whether statistical significance exists between subscales within a group.